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By springtime, the group had planted upward of 20,000 seedlings, a mix of 20 different native tree species including the American chestnut, the Virginia pine and a variety of oaks.

Jackson, then a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, had called looking for advice on how to tell jack pine from Virginia pine.

Mr. Riely is particularly delighted by the Virginia pine, brought in from a nursery nearly 400 miles away in Maryland.

That site covers a rugged forested area that includes the most northwestern extension of naturally occurring Virginia pine.

His farm now boasts five kinds of Christmas tree: Leyland cypress, Murray cypress, Arizona cypress, Eastern red cedar, and Virginia pine.